


Good Bye and Hello

by peachnewt



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Character Death, Episode 102 Spoilers, Gen, Kinda, body merging?, vore-ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-24
Updated: 2017-06-24
Packaged: 2018-11-18 08:53:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11287884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peachnewt/pseuds/peachnewt
Summary: This is a night of accepting things I cannot change.  And then rejecting it in my own way.  Vax'ildan lays down his old life, and says hello to where he goes from there.Spoiler-ish for Episode 102.6-25-2017 UPDATE:  Small tweeks and corrections made.  Thank you all for reading!





	Good Bye and Hello

**Author's Note:**

> Though Liam is kinda part of the fic, I didn't name him as such because I didn't want to dive too far into RPF territory. If you think I should do it anyway, or if there are any tags you think would apply to this, PLEASE COMMENT!
> 
> First fanfic for Critical Role!

Vax awakes no bigger than a human hand on the armrest of a couch. A far cry from death and the Raven Queen, though he vaguely remembered speaking with her, faint as a dream. Laid out on the couch, with his feet towards Vax is a man with his denim clad legs twisted to the side. One hand rests over a yellow shirt with a be-spectacled lion printed on it, the other curls loosely near a face shadowed by dark stubble. Thick rimmed glasses teeter on the edge of a cushion. 

This face, this man, is familiar as a home hearth. Where Vax'ildan had come from, though he had never been, and he needs to get closer. 

Vax climbs over the body, over foot and knee, thigh and hip, shedding his wings and armor as he goes like leaves of a tree ready for a winter sleep. He will miss the armor, he thinks, but not as much as other things. Not as much as stinky Trinket snuggles, sleepy nights with Keyleth tracing her freckles, combing the tangles out of Vex's hair as she talked about her day, Pike's funbuns and god-talk, getting Percy drunk, attempting to get Scanlan drunk (and failing every time), the constant prank war with Grog... his little sister Velora, Shaun, Allura, Kima, Kynan... Simon. 

Vax looks down, unclasping the belt and lets the silver snake fall too. Behind him, the pieces of armor melt away like smoke on the wind. When he reaches the man's belly Vax sits and takes off his boots. Barbarians or the paranoid slept with their boots on. Vox Machina had been both. But this is a different kind of sleep. He wears naught but leggings, his undershirt, and worn-thin socks. 

Vax climbs up to the chest where he can feel the flesh quiver beneath his feet. The heart. His threshold. He looks up at the wind-creased, and tanned face. Red rims the man's sleeping eyes, squinting in a dream of frustration and miserable acceptance. The man needed him more. 

He lays down and curls into the thin yellow fabric, matching his breath to the one rising and falling beneath him. The bass of a heartbeat bled into his own, matching melodies. This wasn't so bad...

"Hey." Vax taps the chest below him and the man starts slightly in his sleep. "Take care of them, big guy." 

Vax'ildan closes his eyes for the last time and smiles, sinking slowly down and into flesh, bone and heart like a drop of wax into a candle. Here lay memory and love. Here was his history and all possibilities. The things about himself he never knew...

And a few things he wish he hadn't know. 

"Ewwww! I was in that same bathtub!" 

He would have plenty of time to visit and vent over memories, and watch his family through different eyes.  
\---

The man wakes up from his impromptu nap, the red around his eyes washed away by sleep. One hand fumbles for his glasses fallen beside the couch, the other rubbing at a strange lightness in his chest. The dream... His hand crinkles the lion print shirt and a matching, breathless smile grows. Grief had given way to a warm flutter that felt like a good friend had come home.


End file.
